We’ll be posting this around the net in a bit, but as our loyal RSS-fed fanbase, you deserve to see it here first — We’re having a contest!!! Woo Hoo! And all you have to do to enter is… well, buy our friggin’ comic!

More details below:

Original Pages From Silent Devil’s Division 18 Can Be Yours at NYCC!
 
Silent Devil, Inc., and the creators of Division 18: The Union of Novelty Costumed Performers are doing some spring cleaning at the New York Comic Con. Each day of the show, Jeremy Donelson will raffle off one original inked page from either Division 18 #1: Five Hunnies or the soon-to-be-released follow-up, Division 18 #2: White Collar Crooks.  
Entering is easy — every issue of Division 18: The Union of Novelty Costumed Performers #1 purchased at the Silent Devil table in Artist’s Alley Booth #2353 (on the main show floor) will come with a raffle ticket. One winner will be announced on Saturday, April 19th, and another on Sunday, April 20th.
Visit the Silent Devil table in Artist’s Alley Booth #2353 at any time during the New York Comic Con to learn more about Division 18, to enter the contest, or to get your comics signed by Matt Bergin and Jeremy Donelson. And remember to ask your local comic retailers to order up plenty of Division 18: The Union of Novelty Costumed Performers!

Haggis Cart, by Harris Grabber at flickr

Here at Union Headquarters, we want to maximize your exposure to Division 18. That’s why, for a limited time, we’ve slashed the price of Division 18: The Union of Novelty Costumed Performers #1 (of 3) in half (now only $1.50!) — allowing you to stock up on the first issue alongside your regular orders for the second.

So act now! Visit the Silent Devil Store to order issue #1, and then hit up your local comic shop and DEMAND that they stock up huge on issue #2 (Diamond order code: DEC07 3789).

And if you’re still not convinced, listen to the creators of D18 (that’s me and Jeremy to you, buddy) talk up all things Division 18 in this sweet-tastic 40-minute ICN interview. Go on… we’ll wait right here for you to finish.

A Christmas Message from Jimmy “The Snake” Hatch:

Ho ho how ya doin’, kiddies. Happy Jesus Day… unless yer one a dem other denominations, like Quackers wit his eight days of potato pancakes and crappy presents. Happy whatever it is you get happy about. I just wanted to remind all a yoos what a great last minute gift an issue of our comic book would be. It’s only three bucks fer those a you dat are hard up fer cash, and it’s got pictures in it fer those a you dat are idiots. Click on through dis here computer link, an’ you can order up a few copies today! (Buy a couple a extras fer New Year’s an’ Valentine’s Day too, cause my wallet ain’t gonna fill itself.)

And don’t ferget… ’tis always da season fer a good beat-down, so yoos better take my advice an’ buy some books to keep me jolly.
Yer Pal,

~Snake

Keep an eye and wallet out for me at the Big Apple Comic Con (aka, The National) in New York City today (and possibly tomorrow). I’ll be kicking around with Josh Adams at the Neal Adams’ Continuity Studios booth with a few goodies. Why is the Union making time with the Adams family? It’s the worst kept secret in comics, but if you track me down at the show, I’ll clue you in.

If you’re in Texas instead, go check out this weekend’s Wizard World Texas and lasso up a copy of Division 18: The Union of Novelty Costumed Performers #1 from Christian Beranek and the gang at the Silent Devil booth. I said “lasso” because everyone in Texas is a cowboy. Har har.

Okay so it’s not an actual ”signing” per se… but signed books are available at Midtown Comics (Westside) right now! I signed the remaining stock of Division 18: The Union of Novelty Costumed Performers #1, transforming the books from mere small press comics into instant collector’s items.

So put on your rubber gloves, break out the mylar sleeve, and gets a shoppin’!

Dear Loyal Fans and Fans-To Be,

Remember that time we hinted that Division 18 issue #1 might come out on Halloween? Yeah, that’s not happening. Details still TK on our actual release date, but its looking like mid-November for the big debut. It will be a Union Thanksgiving for us all!

The bad news: No awesomely synergistic costume-themed promotion tying our comic to the feast of the great pumpkin.

The good news: We get to stay home Wednesday night and drown our sorrows in candy corn and whiskey.

Welcome to Indie publishing, suckers! 

 ~The Management

Jeremy is in Italy and we’re still at least one Wednesday away from the release of issue #1. A tired new father has to fill his time somehow, right?

Instead of an advanced review of our comic, Comic Book Resources has posted the equivalent of an attack ad against us! Their latest edition of Publishing Follies is a precautionary tale against the practice of hiring costumed convention models! How could they?!

We’re disappointed that the Union was not consulted for this article, but we’re not surprised. Though we only skimmed the piece while surfing the Web for porn, we can only assume that it is meant as an attack on our livelihood and is designed to deter convention exhibitors from seeking the services of costumed performers… and, thus, taking money out of our pockets. Therefore, we are outraged.

Outraged!

The author of this piece of so-called journalism, going by the ridiculous pseudonym “Todd Allen,” claims to be some sort of “professor” at a ”Columbia College” in “Chicago” of all places. Ha! This Mr. Allen uses a lot of fancy terminology, like consistency of character and trained actors. Had Mr. Allen interviewed one of our representative, he’d have realized that such lofty ideals have no place in the Union of Novelty Costumed Performers and would have immediately given up his crusade against us.

This is almost as upsetting as that unsanctioned Anthrocon 2007 that we got wind of recently. Friggin Furries.

The Union of Novelty Costumed Performers as you know it today, a genuine comic book published by Silent Devil Inc and soon to be available wherever funny books are sold, has two parents - me and Jerm. This comic is our baby. Jerm, on art, has been living and breathing these characters for what seems to be an eternity… so I guess that makes him the mother. I’m more of the deadbeat dad who sends a card a week late for the kid’s birthday. But there was a third, oft unmentioned contributor to our epic of costumed proportions. To continue this uncomfortable birthing analogy, he was like the midwife reminding us to breath during labor, or the smooth Barry White sounds that put us in the mood to conceive, or… actually, you know what, I’m gonna stop. He was Peat. Still is Peat. Just Peat.

The three of us had been working together in different departments of a small medical publishing company for about a year. Bored from spending his days checking production specs, Peat was eager to bring in his unemployed friends when the opportunity arose. It arose twice in 6 months. I was first, landing a job in editorial, while Jerm came on a few months later on the IT side. It was only a matter of time before goofing off took precedence over actual work. During a lull in writing his novel (more on that later) and plotting out Dungeons & Dragons campaigns (us = huge nerds), Peat suggested that we start a jam comic (see previous comment re: nerds). We didn’t call it a jam comic, though. In fact, we still refuse to label our masterpiece anything but THE COMIC (I guess we also label it “our masterpiece” though).

Since most of the hits on this site until the comic hits stores will be from our families and co-workers, let me explain what is meant by a jam comic: Basically, it is a comic created by passing it person to person, one panel at a time, with no plan or discussion in between. It encourages spontaneity (and also plenty of dick and fart jokes). This was something Peat and Jeremy practiced with glee back in high school, and having known me for almost as long - since we worked together in a comic shop years earlier - Peat knew I’d be up for it too. I definitely was. In fact, I probably deserved to be fired over it, as I spent more time on it than I did on actual work. (Did I mention I’m writing this at the office?)

Anyway. Peat and Jerm were fairly responsible employees, always making sure their desks were clear before doing a panel, and sometimes even bringing the comic home lest they neglect their professional duties. But not me, man. I would drop everything as soon as the comic hit my in-box. At the time, my job was essentially proofreading junk mail for doctors, so you can’t blame me for jumping on a creative escape. I was forever setting up gags, only to have Peat and Jerm, refusing to deliver my punchlines, do complete non-sequitur panels just to shut me up. (If I had had my way at one point, a machine-gun-toting Gumby and his vengeance-starved sidekick Pokey would have been the stars of the comic!) It was in one of those moments of serendipitous frustration, when the book was veering off in a dozen new and more ridiculous direction with every panel, that Peat and Jerm gave me the perfect setup. Snake, Lou, Tony, and “The Novelty Costume Performers Union” were born.

From there, we went on for another two years, 60+ pages, and an unacceptable number of hours “on the clock” cranking out some of the most juvenile, offensive, and poo-flingingly ridiculous comic book action you could imagine. And no matter how far off the original thread we went, I made sure Snake and the rest of Division 18 found their way back into the story. Apparently, my muse is a guy in an 8-foot-tall snake suit. Since our adventures in insubordination, Jerm and I decided to REALLY do a comic, hooked up with Silent Devil, and here we are. Peat had bigger fish to fry, and decided to focus on fantasy writing. Apparently the kid’s got talent, because he just recently scored a 3 book deal with one of the biggest Fantasy/Sci-fi publishers around, Del Rey. Jerm and I like to think he couldn’t have done it without honing his craft on angry drunken Scotsman and diaper-wearing cyborg chimps.

But where we were, where we are, and where we’re going aren’t important. Our goal with the comic has always been to help each other laugh our way through another otherwise mind-numbing dull day of work, and it was a blast. Peat has moved on to biggers and betters, but Jerm and I haven’t changed that goal. We’re just expanding the audience. Hope you enjoy it!